Nieman Lab.
Predictions for
Journalism, 2024.
Over the next year, the news industry will have to confront the realities of building an audience in a post-social media world — a world where the news not only doesn’t reach those who aren’t looking for it, but is not a consistent presence in many Americans’ lives.
The last year has reminded many news organizations how brittle online audiences can be. Facebook traffic declined sharply in 2023, dashing publishers’ hopes that a long fall in referral traffic had finally plateaued. Google showed signs of instability with publishers watching millions of impressions from Google News and Discover evaporate after Google’s updates during the fall. I’ve seen a mad rush to places like Apple News, Microsoft Start, SmartNews, and other platforms where news organizations have some confidence that the audience cares about news.
The 425-plus nonprofit news organizations in the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) Network produce some of the best journalism in the world, and in my role at INN, I’ve worked hard to get that coverage in front of the people who will benefit the most from it. When I took stock in 2023 of the menu of distribution options for the coming year, I was shocked at how much the news has retreated from the American landscape. I now worry that news’ place in our culture is fundamentally at risk if we don’t invest significantly in reaching the people who aren’t actively seeking out the news.
As recently as a decade ago, the news and news stories were a consistent part of daily life for Americans. The news was on the TV in the waiting room at the dentist’s office and news magazines were on the table. The hygienist was often playing the radio and the news headlines would top the hour. News stands and newspaper boxes were still on some corners, and coffee shops were still piled high with alternative newspapers. The Internet was also full of news stories. Companies like Yahoo still assumed the first thing people wanted to do online was check what was happening and covered their site with headlines. The Pew Research Center also found that by 2013 30 percent of all Americans were getting news on Facebook.
What all this incidental exposure meant for awareness of the news is important, but more fundamentally, it consistently reinforced for a majority of Americans that the news was important. Even if I didn’t read the news magazines at the dentist’s office, I saw others doing it. Even if I didn’t listen to the headlines on the radio, I assumed others did. Maybe I didn’t read the news articles in my Facebook feed, but I got lots of signals that others did. There were signals all around to convince me that the news was important to most people and they were paying attention — and there was a societal expectation that I should too.
Almost all of those signals are gone or severely weakened now. As increasingly uncommon as it may be for Americans who aren’t seeking out the news to stumble upon it, the bigger problem is that Americans rarely ever see other Americans engaging with the news.
In 2022, the Pew Research Center asked people how important it was to follow domestic politics to be a good member of society. The United States was near the very bottom of the list, with just over a third saying it was very important, ranking higher than only Poland among developed nations. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t politically active, and in fact political participation has been consistently going up. It is very possible to have a very active and yet poorly informed electorate.
INN members have inspired me with experiments to reassert news’ place in the American landscape, from the Montana Free Press buying a billboard in downtown Helena to Borderless Magazine printing comic books. It’s clear the ideas are there to tackle this problem when I look out at the INN Network, but the urgency and stakes of the moment will come to a head in 2024.
The press is an essential part of creating an informed electorate and our rights are guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, but the press is not guaranteed a prominent place in American society or power within the culture.
In 2024, news organizations need to think hard about how they’re going to invest more in marketing to reclaim even a portion of that role in American culture. The power of the press comes in part from the ability to maintain the impression that everyone is paying attention to the news. Without more resources going to pushing out the news into American life, we risk not only our sustainability, but the power of the press.
Sam Cholke is the manager of distribution & audience growth at the Institute for Nonprofit News.
Over the next year, the news industry will have to confront the realities of building an audience in a post-social media world — a world where the news not only doesn’t reach those who aren’t looking for it, but is not a consistent presence in many Americans’ lives.
The last year has reminded many news organizations how brittle online audiences can be. Facebook traffic declined sharply in 2023, dashing publishers’ hopes that a long fall in referral traffic had finally plateaued. Google showed signs of instability with publishers watching millions of impressions from Google News and Discover evaporate after Google’s updates during the fall. I’ve seen a mad rush to places like Apple News, Microsoft Start, SmartNews, and other platforms where news organizations have some confidence that the audience cares about news.
The 425-plus nonprofit news organizations in the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) Network produce some of the best journalism in the world, and in my role at INN, I’ve worked hard to get that coverage in front of the people who will benefit the most from it. When I took stock in 2023 of the menu of distribution options for the coming year, I was shocked at how much the news has retreated from the American landscape. I now worry that news’ place in our culture is fundamentally at risk if we don’t invest significantly in reaching the people who aren’t actively seeking out the news.
As recently as a decade ago, the news and news stories were a consistent part of daily life for Americans. The news was on the TV in the waiting room at the dentist’s office and news magazines were on the table. The hygienist was often playing the radio and the news headlines would top the hour. News stands and newspaper boxes were still on some corners, and coffee shops were still piled high with alternative newspapers. The Internet was also full of news stories. Companies like Yahoo still assumed the first thing people wanted to do online was check what was happening and covered their site with headlines. The Pew Research Center also found that by 2013 30 percent of all Americans were getting news on Facebook.
What all this incidental exposure meant for awareness of the news is important, but more fundamentally, it consistently reinforced for a majority of Americans that the news was important. Even if I didn’t read the news magazines at the dentist’s office, I saw others doing it. Even if I didn’t listen to the headlines on the radio, I assumed others did. Maybe I didn’t read the news articles in my Facebook feed, but I got lots of signals that others did. There were signals all around to convince me that the news was important to most people and they were paying attention — and there was a societal expectation that I should too.
Almost all of those signals are gone or severely weakened now. As increasingly uncommon as it may be for Americans who aren’t seeking out the news to stumble upon it, the bigger problem is that Americans rarely ever see other Americans engaging with the news.
In 2022, the Pew Research Center asked people how important it was to follow domestic politics to be a good member of society. The United States was near the very bottom of the list, with just over a third saying it was very important, ranking higher than only Poland among developed nations. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t politically active, and in fact political participation has been consistently going up. It is very possible to have a very active and yet poorly informed electorate.
INN members have inspired me with experiments to reassert news’ place in the American landscape, from the Montana Free Press buying a billboard in downtown Helena to Borderless Magazine printing comic books. It’s clear the ideas are there to tackle this problem when I look out at the INN Network, but the urgency and stakes of the moment will come to a head in 2024.
The press is an essential part of creating an informed electorate and our rights are guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, but the press is not guaranteed a prominent place in American society or power within the culture.
In 2024, news organizations need to think hard about how they’re going to invest more in marketing to reclaim even a portion of that role in American culture. The power of the press comes in part from the ability to maintain the impression that everyone is paying attention to the news. Without more resources going to pushing out the news into American life, we risk not only our sustainability, but the power of the press.
Sam Cholke is the manager of distribution & audience growth at the Institute for Nonprofit News.
